Kim’s game goes to pot on No. 2

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This article was published 17/07/2009 (6218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TURNBERRY, Scotland — Anthony Kim took three swipes to escape a pot bunker, and by the time he was done making a mess of the second hole at Turnberry on Thursday, he had a quintuple-bogey 9.

It somehow got even worse.

Trying to shake off his miserable start in the British Open, he was turning his neck to loosen up when he felt it grab. It wasn’t long before the 24-year-old Kim was lying on his stomach between dunes as a trainer tried to work out the pain.

“It was just a crick in my neck,” Kim said. “It was a little awkward, but I’m fine.”

What really hurt was his putter. Despite his rugged start, Kim gave himself birdie chances on just about every hole and didn’t convert nearly enough of them. Even so, he fought back to 1-over par and had an 8-iron into the 16th hole. He went right at the flag, only to see the ball spin back, catch the slope and tumble into the burn. He made double bogey.

Kim finished with a 3-over 73.

SHARK BAIT: When last seen on the links of a British Open, Greg Norman was shooting a 77 to fall out of the lead at Royal Birkdale.

A year later, he had the same score under entirely different circumstances. Norman didn’t make a birdie until the 17th hole, and he attributed the tough day to easy conditions.

“I knew if the conditions were calm it would be tough on me,” he said. “I wasn’t hitting the ball that solid. It was disappointing that I wasn’t walking onto the first tee feeling confident about where I was hitting the ball.” He was in the final group last year. He likely will be leaving Friday.

ACHES AND GAINS: Mark Calcavecchia won the Canadian Open when he was 45, then he won at Innisbrook at age 47. He turned 49 last month, but is not holding out much hope for the cycle to continue.

“My thoughts of winning have pretty much gone out the window as time goes by,” Calcavecchia said after opening with a 67.

His back has been bothering him lately, and the ’89 Open champion contemplated staying home, especially after he had to play 36 holes on Sunday to finish the John Deere Classic. His love of this championship is the only reason he flew over.

“Once I was done, I took a few more Aleve and a couple of beers, and I was OK and got on the plane,” he said. “And several more beers went flowing down. The next thing you know, we were landing.”

— The Associated Press